Joe Mohrfeld is a self-described “homebrewer done good” who made a lot of beer, started volunteering at Odell Brewing[2] about three years ago and bugged the powers that be so much, they eventually hired him. He quickly ascended to the head brewer position in July 2009.

Now, Mohrfeld is on his way to Austin[3], Texas, where he will oversee brewing at a new venture that will feature pizza made with local ingredients, brewpub[4] tap staples and a regular rotation of boundary-pushing pints that have become Mohrfeld’s calling card.

Come January, the 28-year-old will join friends in the closest thing there is to a Colorado-like town in Texas to start Pinthouse Pizza. Mohrfeld said he hopes to bring the same kind of collaborative approach he sought overseeing the eight-member Odell[5]’s brew crew.

“It’s a super exciting scene now and I think it’s only going to get better,” Mohrfeld said. “There are a lot of really talented brewers, and the public is really committed to craft beer.”

In Austin, Mohrfeld will oversee a seven-barrel brewhouse that will produce most of the volume, but also a small 10-gallon brewhouse he hopes will keep a tap filled with pilot beers.

Asked about what he’s proud of from his tenure in Fort Collins[9], Mohrfeld talks about the brewery’s single serve series, including Avant Peche (an Imperial Porter aged in oak barrels with Colorado peaches and wild yeasts) and Deconstruction (another barrel-aged beer, this one a golden ale packing a 10.5 percent ABV).

There’s also the better-known Myrcernary, a double IPA whose name came to Mohrfeld while he was sitting in a technical hop conference and the discussion turned to Myrcene, a component of essential oils in the hop flower.

Mohrfeld had found a name for a beer that grew out of double IPA recipes different people around the brewery had been playing around with in the pilot system for years.

Odell started selling Myrcernary in four-packs this year. The brewery has done the same for its Double Pilsner, “kind of a cult classic beer for the brewers” that until this year didn’t get much of a sales push, Mohrfeld said.

“We’re not going to brew anything that we’re not excited about drinking,” he said. “That’s what we have always championed.”

Odell is sorting through replacement scenarios as Mohrfeld’s days grow numbered. But at a brewery that takes a collaborative approach to making some remarkable beers, it’s never just about one guy, anyway.